John Lewis, Waitrose and Lidl: The top 10 retailers with the best customer shopping experience

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John Lewis leaves customers more satisfied than other shops (Source: Getty)

Lynsey Barber

Middle England favourites John Lewis and Waitrose continue to triumph when it comes to offering shoppers the best customer experience - but Lidl is racing ahead of rivals.

The discounter climbed to ninth - a rise of six places - in an annual ranking of the best customer shopping experience, taking into account things such as stock availability, product information, price and customer service.

But the elevation was more down to the decline of other retailers, said analysts at Forrester which conducted the research. Asda was the biggest faller, down to 13 from nine.

John Lewis topped the ranking for the third year in a row, and was this year the only retailer classed as "good".

Overall, a little over half of the more then 9,000 customers surveyed said they they had a happy experience with all retailers, something that fell to just 30 per cent when specifically looking at online experience.